The present invention relates generally to a system for transporting fluids from a source of purified water or dialysate to individual dialysis machines in a dialysis clinic.
One objective of the invention is to provide a drain system for fluid discharged from a plurality of dialysis machines. A standard dialysis machine receives ultra pure water with various additives. The combination of water and additives is generally referred to as dialysate. The blood is filtered through the dialysate to remove contaminants. The used dialysate has absorbed these contaminants and is discharged from the dialysis machines as discharge fluid. Traditionally, the discharge fluid is discharged through a floor drain to a city sewer system. Such floor drains are typically expensive to install. Floor drains also often result in the emission of noxious odors. This is particularly so when the substance being dumped through the drain is noxious. This is the case with dialysis discharge fluid.
The drains are sloped which requires substantial elevation changes along the length of the prior art systems. These prior art systems can particularly difficult and expensive to install when rehabilitating an existing building to convert available commercial building space for more intensive clinical use.
It is not possible, however, to directly connect a vacuum system to the discharge line of a dialysis machine. This is because the presence of a vacuum at the dialysis machine will adversely affect the performance of the machine. The importance of maintaining dialysis machine parameters in optimum ranges is discussed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,276,611 entitled "Management Of Parameters Relating To A Dialysis Treatment" by Ghiraldi; and U.S. Pat. No. 5,792,367 entitled "System And Method For Monitoring A Flow Of Dialysis Fluid In A Dialysis Machine" by Mattisson et al., both of which are hereby incorporated herein by reference. The present invention provides the advantages of a vacuum discharge conduit, while preventing the communication of a vacuum to the discharge of the dialysis machine.
What is needed then is a system which facilitates fluid removal without affecting the performance of the fluid source. This needed system must eliminate fluid discharge without applying a vacuum to the source. This needed system should be capable of removing noxious and unsanitary fluid wastes. This needed system should be capable of removing unpleasant odors resulting from the fluid to be removed. This needed system is presently lacking in the prior art.